Breaking Down

Last weekend was an adventure in the McConnell household.  It began a beautiful morning.  I got up around 6am for an event I needed to attend at 7am in Greenville.  Not wanting to wake anyone up, I quietly went out the back door and decided to drive the Cadillac rather than open the garage door for my Kia.

We know the car is old, and it's been pretty good to us ove the years, but we've become accustomed to ignoring the typical warnings that usually go off, like "service suspension system" or "service air bag".  Eric has disabled most of the warning things because they are so complicated and costly to fix.

However, on this 20 minute drive into Greenville on I-85, about halfway there, the warning messages become frequent.  The car now reads:  "service engine" and "coolant level low" with a ding sound each time a new message popped up.  I've seen those occasionally, but I'm almost there.  I will call Eric once I arrive.

Another mile down the road and the dings start going off with the messages increasing in intensity:  "engine trouble", "engine oil hot", "turn off A/C", "engine overheating", "turn car to idle", "engine shutting down".  I freak out, pull to the shoulder of the interstate as far as I can, and turn off the car.  

While waiting on Eric (he had to wake the kids and pile them in to come get me), I watched a contractor truck pull over just beyond where I pulled off.  Two Hispanic men  got out and noticed I was still in the car.  They got back in their truck and drove away.  I later found out they were probably going to strip the car of anything they could:  hudcaps, metals, radio, etc.  Sure didn't take long, but glad they weren't interested in me.

Eric arrived with the kids, a gallon of water, coolant, and a quart of oil.  He topped off all the fluids and started up the car.  Darn Cadillac only made it 2 miles before it overheated again.  We decided at that point to just slowly drive it home a few miles at a time.  Here's a picture of the car at one of it's stopping points...

We had a lot on our agenda that day, and it didn't help to have one vehicle down.  We drove the Kia and mustang to all the other events, stopping occasionally to move the Cadi a little closer to home.

One of the errands was a rental home we are renovating.  The previous renters had two large dogs that were allowed to urinate wherever they wanted.  The carpet was ruined, so it all had to be discarded.  The mustang was too small, so guess whose car got to haul it off?  Yep, mine.  The Kia.  The smell lingered in the Kia well beyond disposal of the filthy carpet.  

Couldn't stand being in the Kia much longer without airing it out, so now driving the mustang.  Stopped at Home Depot to get the Cadi and move it closer to home again (5th segment so far).  However, on this particular stop, the mustang didn't start back up.  Yep, that's twice in one day and now two vehicles down.  Here's a picture from the driver's view.  

I'd had it.  Two cars disabled and the third smelled foul.  That was the last straw, so I finally convinced Eric to buy a truck.  Somehow, Luke seemed to benefit from my misfortunes and saw this as his new vehicle (although he still doesn't have a full license).

By the end of the day, we managed to get the other broken down cars back to the house. Fortunately, I have a wonderful husband who is a well versed mechanic and is able to get the vechilces running again. Hence, we've returned to having 4 vehicles in the driveway while a 5th is at USC.  Nice....